


Uncalled

by jperalta



Category: Family Ties (TV)
Genre: Gen, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 08:19:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15747870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jperalta/pseuds/jperalta
Summary: Alex Keaton has a panic attack and his family, especially his father, help him through it.





	Uncalled

Alex heard a knock on his door, and he knew it was Mallory. He knew he had no reason to be angry at her, but he couldn’t help it. “What do you want?” He yelled out. Her voice was low on the other side of the door and he threw his head into his hands. “I can’t hear you. Just - just come in.” The door opened and Mallory slid into the room. She looked shy and scared and it all made Alex feel terrible about yelling, but lately he found he was unable to control himself. His heart would race so quickly and he would feel the energy pumping through him as if he was about to explode. 

Mallory brought her hands up to her hair and began to twirl it nervously. “Alex,” she began, “I wanted to see how you were doing. You didn’t come down for dinner.”

He winced as he remembered about a half hour ago, yelling down that he would be there in a minute, that he just had to do something real quickly. Only he hadn’t done anything - he had just been lying on his bed, listening to static coming through the radio as he watched his chest rise and fall. 

“I.. wasn’t hungry.” He said.

Mallory let out a small sound that resembled a whimper and everything made Alex feel terrible. “Alex, you haven’t eaten since breakfast, and even then you only had half of a piece of toast.” He looked down at his shaking hands and he wanted to scream. “You’ve hardly eaten anything all week and you spend all of your time in your room. No one sees you anymore and I’m worried.”

“I’m fine, Mallory,” he said with a tremble in his voice. His stomach began making sounds and he felt nauseous. How could he explain to anyone that the reason he hadn’t eaten anything was that every time he moved he felt like he was going to throw up? “I just - I have a cold. It’s fine.”

“Colds don’t usually do this to you, Alex.” He felt a tightness in his chest and wanted to die. “It’s like you’re not even living!”

“Mallory, I said everything is fine, please just leave me alone!” And that did it - when he let himself yell like that, it was as if his whole body went into shock. His hands were shaking uncontrollably now and the nausea was more severe than ever. He felt like all of the oxygen was leaving his body all at once and he didn’t know how to breathe anymore. He felt scared and sad and strange and had no idea what was happening. “Oh God,” he whispered, “I think I’m dying.”

Mallory ran over to the bed and squat in front of him. “Alex?” She grabbed onto his shoulders and tried to get him to look at her, but he was too far out of it. He was gasping for air and sweating and his limbs were vibrating. “I’m going to get mom and dad, okay?”

He wanted to scream no, please don’t. He wanted to say that he didn’t want to worry them even more than he probably already had been, but instead he just sat on the bed and continued to shake. When she walked away, all he could do was mutter out “please don’t go.” He saw visions of Greg’s face and he clutched the sides of his head with his hands and wanted nothing more than to just pull his hair out of his head.

Mallory ran out to the hallway as fast as she could. “Mom, Dad, please come here, something is happening to Alex!” She yelled as her voice began to crack. Within seconds, Elyse and Steven were upstairs, and Mallory leaned against the wall with her hand covering her mouth. Jennifer ran in as well and grabbed onto her mother’s pants.

Steven dropped right next to Alex on the bed as he continued to gasp for air through sobs. “Alex!” He clutched his arms. “Alex, talk to me.”

Alex wanted to. He wanted to be able to convey what he was feeling, but instead he just said, “I’m so scared, dad, oh my god, what is happening? Holy sh-” And his voice stopped as he began to choke on the air and cough. 

“Mallory,” Steven began, “go get a glass of water please.” She ran out of the room as quickly as she could. “Elyse, can you go into the top right drawer of my dresser and get -”

“I’m on it,” Elyse said quickly as she too ran out of the room, leaving Jennifer to stand against the wall alone, totally in shock from what was happening. 

Steven gripped Alex’s arms tighter. “Alex, you’re going to be okay,” he said. Alex almost wanted to laugh because he felt the exact opposite of okay at that moment. 

Mallory and Elyse reentered the room at the same time. Elyse handed Steven a small white capsule and Steven gave it to Alex. “Swallow that,” he dictated. Upon seeing how wary Alex was of the pill, he repeated, “swallow it, now.” Mallory passed the water over to Alex and he put the pill in his mouth. “And drink the whole glass,” Steven said. Alex did as he was told. “Close your eyes, and count backwards from thirty in your head - slowly.”

As Alex closed his eyes and counted backwards, he could feel something happening within his body. He felt his mind shutting down and his arms began to shake less. His hyperventilating became less severe. He still felt a little nauseous, but not so badly that he felt as though he would vomit at the slightest movement. He felt as though he could hear his heartbeat audibly getting less manic, less loud. As he was approaching zero, Steven told him to keep repeating the countdown until he felt completely mellow, and so he did. 

Several moments later, Alex opened his eyes. The world seemed fuzzy but he felt less terrified. “What -” He went to speak but found his mouth was dry. He cleared his throat. “What was that?” He asked, his voice still shaky but more from the shock of everything.

“What do you mean - the pill or what happened?”

Alex looked at his fingers and noticed that they felt tingly. “Um, I guess both.”

“Valium,” Steven stated calmly.

Alex nodded. It’s what he had expected. “So was that a-”

“A panic attack.”

Alex was in shock again. He couldn’t believe that that had just happened to him. Wasn’t he supposed to be able to know his way around things? He felt sad and angry at himself. “I can’t believe it,” he mumbled. 

Elyse sat behind him on the bed and wrapped her arms around his stomach. She pressed her chin against Alex’s back. “It’s okay, sweetheart, you’re going through something. These things can happen to people. Sometimes there’s a reason - sometimes there’s not. But either way, it’s okay. There are things you can do.”

“Things?”

Elyse nodded. “Therapy, medication, other things - you are not without hope.”

Alex let himself fall into his mother and father’s arms a bit more as a feeling of calmness began to take him over.


End file.
